Stallion Books 206 Queer Sisters by Steve Harragan scarce piece of 1950s "sleaze digest"
Stallion Books 206 Queer Sisters by Steve Harragan scarce piece of 1950s "sleaze digest"
Stallion Books 206 Queer Sisters by Steve Harragan scarce piece of 1950s "sleaze digest" Poor Condition do to spine and missing pieces from cover
The basics
This is The Queer Sisters by "Steve Harragan," Stallion Books #206, priced 35¢. It's a digest-sized paperback (smaller and squarer than a standard mass-market paperback). Stallion copies are typically listed without a printed date, and dealers date it to around 1950, though since it's a reprint (see below), early-to-mid 1950s is more realistic.
Stallion was a short-lived New York imprint that recycled titles from other digest publishers. A collector who catalogued the line describes Stallion as underrated and fairly scarce, with a limited run that probably wasn't very successful, using a mix of photo and painted covers and some reprints from companies like Uni and Intimate Books. Your book first appeared as Uni Books #43, published by Universal around 1952. Stallion's list ran from #201 to #216 and included Harragan's Three Bad Girls, Side-Show Girl, and Smuggled Sin, plus Marijuana Girl and Harry Whittington's Cracker Girl.
Who "Steve Harragan" really was
It's a pen name. The author was an Englishman, William Maconachie, writing in the breezy Carter Brown style. "Steve Harragan" was also the name of the main character, a former crime reporter who got rich betting on horses and became a man-about-town amateur detective. Some of these books were repackaged British novels: Sin Is a Redhead, for example, was originally Redhead Rhapsody! from Hamilton & Company in London (c. 1950), where both author and hero were called "Bart Carson." Whether The Queer Sisters has a British original too, I couldn't confirm. The title's use of "queer" puts it among the early lesbian-themed pulps, which are now actively collected for LGBTQ history as well as for the lurid art.
The cover artist: a real find
The "B. Safran" signature at lower right is Bernard Safran (1924–1995), who went on to a serious art career. After WWII he started freelancing as a book-jacket illustrator in 1946, grew dissatisfied with the work, and decided to become a fine artist. Between 1957 and 1966 he painted 73 TIME magazine covers.